Surprise Party
by HoneyBeeez
Summary: Abe decides that watching Mihashi potentially throw himself another surprise party would be just as painful as last time, so he takes things into his own hands. Too bad he drops the ball, and lets everyone in on it. And maybe he should have learned a little bit more about festival games... Festival!AU (or thats what i call it anyways!) Abemiha!


**Did anyone else notice that i only write one-shots? i swear ill try to continue my multi-chapter abemiha fanfics!**

 **but yeah, birthday parties. i actually got inspired by Chuck E. Cheeses', so i dont know if this is even possible but... eh.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THESE BEAUTIFUL BOYS**

 **okay, enjoy!~**

* * *

The place was loud, and crowded, and bright, and they haven't even been there for long and Abe felt like he was getting a headache. But, the look on Mihashi's face almost made it better. Almost.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" They all cheered, smiling widely at a severely surprised Mihashi, who was looking around excitedly with a derpy, little, wavery smile on his face.

"We got him good!" Tajima said, pouncing onto the blond and making him lose his balance.

"Y-You…" Mihashi stuttered. "Thank you!" He said, looking at the rest of the team, his eyes wide and sparkling with something that Abe hoped wasn't tears.

"It was the least we could do." Nishihiro said, shrugging like it wasn't a big deal.

"It was actually Abe's idea." Izumi said, a little smirk on his lips as he nudged said party planner in the ribs. Abe glared at him, wanting to tackle him and make him shut up, but there was nothing he could do about it now since he already said something.

"R-R-Really?" Mihashi stuttered, snapping Abe out of the trance he was in. He couldn't tell if he was shocked, or still surprised, or nervous, or happy, and he really should have figured it out by now, but he hasn't. Not knowing was kind of unnerving.

"Er, yeah." Abe said. It felt like he should say more, like, ' _I thought it would be nice to throw you something_ ' or maybe ' _because all of us didn't know last year we might as well do something now_ ' or ' _I didn't think this would be a popular idea and I was hoping it would be just us_ ' but…. There was nothing. Thankfully, Tajima and Oki came to his rescue just in time.

"Mihashi, let's go win prizes!" Tajima said, shaking him a little bit, bringing him back to reality instead of looking at Abe with this kind of weird intensity.

"Oh, I heard that they have the game where you knock down bottles with a ball! We could do that!" Oki suggested, getting an enthusiastic response from Mihashi. The three of them rushed away, probably bound to search through the whole festival for the damn game.

* * *

Just for the record, Abe never really thought this would unfold like this. He just coincidentally remembered that Mihashi's birthday was coming up… okay, maybe that was how it started, but that was about a month ago and he's been thinking about something to do ever since. Because, let's face, throwing a surprise birthday party for yourself is pathetic, and Mihashi deserves something better than that, because he was so devoted, and hardworking, even if he was an idiot sometimes.

So, when he found out that there was a festival that was going to come around, he knew what he was going to do. (Honestly, the festival comes every year, Abe's just been too dense to notice it, nor did he particularly care, but since it's so convenient and it'll cater to his needs, why the hell not go?) The plan was perfect, really: call Mihashi and tell him to meet him at the train station, then hitch a ride to the festival, surprise him, and then spend the day seeing the idiot run around and be happy.

(In theory, it would have been a perfect time for Abe to tell him that he sort of liked him a lot, if he had the balls, but he always thought that was something that would come in time, not another perk of this stupid surprise thing.)

But Abe messed up. He just had to open his mouth when he realized that Hanai was talking about going to the festival with his sisters almost every year. Once the whole "festival birthday part" bit was released, there was no turning back, and to hide it all, Abe told them that he was going to tell everyone to show up.

(Smooth, right? Well, maybe it was for the better, because at least if things get messed up, there would be other people that they knew there that could either help out or keep everything away as long as possible.)

But then Izumi had to go and almost wreck it all, by waiting outside the locker room as everyone started to leave. He swore to anyone that asked that he wanted to talk strategy, and everyone left the two behind suspicion-free. So when Izumi smirked at him as he came walking out of the clubroom, Abe didn't think anything of it.

 _"So why'd you do it?"_

 _"Do what?"_

 _"Put your right shoe on first, idiot. I'm talking about the birthday party you practically planned for Mihashi."_

 _"Oh. I just remembered, that's all."_

 _"Abe, you're great with stats, but I'm sure you couldn't remember your own birthday even if you had it written down somewhere."_

 _"Hey-!"_

 _"Just saying. So what, you like him or something?"_

 _"…. So what if I do?"_

 _"Nothing. Just curious._ "

So things end up going not-so-according-to-plan. Abe did tell Mihashi to meet him at the train station, except now it was the whole team waiting for him, and that's fine, Abe guessed, because Mihashi would least likely expect something when it's all of them there, right? As they get closer to their destination, they all internally panic, because _someone_ was supposed to bring a blindfold and no one did. Abe facepalms, rolls his eyes, and whips his hat off his head and plops it onto Mihashi's head, covering his eyes effectively.

 _"Wha-?"_

 _"Keep it there. Don't peek."_

And so, they somehow get him into the festival without anything tipping him off or him falling over his own two feet, and Abe's plan may have been foiled, but maybe it was better that other people came along too.

* * *

"Hey." Izumi said, shoving his shoulder hard enough to snap him out of whatever reprieve he found himself stuck in. "What are you going to do now?" He asked.

"What do you mean? We follow them, right?" Hanai asked, looking at the two of them.

"I thought we were supposed to be together…" Mizutani said, looking at everyone a bit skeptically, like they all missed the mark big-time.

"Wasn't that the point of all this?" Nishihiro asked.

"No, not really." Abe said. "I wanted Mihashi distracted so that we could go off and win him something. For his birthday." Okay, so maybe he lied through his teeth pretty well, and everyone didn't question it. Well, everyone except Izumi, but he had to be nosy about all this in the first place, so it wasn't like it mattered.

"Well, that seems like a good enough plan." Suyama said. "You must have thought about this a lot, huh?"

"Oh, you have no idea." Izumi said with a smirk, slinging an arm over Abe's shoulders. They all looked at them curious, while Abe ducked out from under his arm and stared daggers at him.

"We're sort of wasting time talking about this. Doesn't the last train back leave in two hours?" Nishihiro said, effectively getting everyone's attention off of Izumi and Abe, who was still slightly fuming.

"Right. Let's get going, then!" Mizutani said, and they all nodded.

As they went off looking for games that looked easy enough to win, Hanai explains to everyone how the whole prize-thing worked out. How was Abe supposed to know that the games gave out tickets instead of actual prizes?

And so, the planned changed again. Now the goal was to win enough tickets to get Mihashi a kick-ass present that'll put all his other birthdays to shame. (Okay, so maybe it wasn't all that extreme, nor did he have very high hopes about the festival's prize selection, but he was hopeful that he could at least find something that'll make his pitcher happy.)

After a quick discussion, they broke up into two groups and went their separate ways. It would be better this way, Abe thought to himself. They could get more done, let alone get more tickets, so they could win Mihashi something great, and hopefully Tajima and Oki can distract Mihashi for long enough in order for them to actually make this happen.

It was then, as he was walking around looking for an easy game to win with Nishihiro, Izumi, and Sakaeguchi, that he realized how idiotic this whole plan was. Was he really expressing everything he wanted to say to Mihashi with some kind of token-of-gratitude-provided-by-the-efforts-of-the-whole-team? Did he really just defeat the whole purpose of this thing by splitting everyone up?

He realized he was an idiot, and he blindly followed Sakaeguchi as he raced off towards a booth.

"Will you slow down? Geez!" Izumi said, not even bothering to walk faster as Sakaeguchi pointed and looked hopefully at the game.

"I love these things!" Nishihiro said, smiling widely. Abe just blinked. It looked almost like a shop, with a counter and some stools under it, only on the counter there was these… gun-looking things and in the middle of the 'table' there was an assortment of tubes with different colored water at the bottom.

"It's one of those games where you have to shoot water and fill up the tube in order to win." Izumi explained, noticing the blank and slightly confused look on his face. Abe just nodded, still kind of out of it from his recent realization, before Izumi elbowed him hard. "Snap out of it, we'll get enough tickets." He muttered.

Sakaeguchi talked to the vendor, getting a discount on the game thanks to Nishihiro's help, and they all sat down at a stool.

"Three… Two… One… GO!" The vendor called.

Not even a minute later, the vendor was handing a handful of tickets to Nishihiro, who filled up his meter quicker than everyone else. They walked away, counting at the tickets relentlessly and tucking them away for safe-keeping.

It went on like that for a while, hunting for games they could win, playing, and getting handed some tickets. They had most of their luck with tossing games, one where you had to toss some lightweight balls into a bucket not too far away (not too hard, especially not to them since they were used to Momo-kan's Koshien-goal oriented practices), and another where you had to make a couple free throws with a basketball (Abe and Sakaeguchi had better luck with that one, getting the most tickets in each round, but not by much; Nishihiro was much better at popping balloons with darts and Izumi was a genius when it came to tossing rings onto milk bottles).

By the end of it, they guessed they had a pretty good amount of tickets shoved away in their pockets. They assumed it was time to meet up with Hanai, Mizuntani, and Suyama, so they took a shortcut through the roller-coaster part of the festival.

"Hey, isn't that Tajima, over there?" Nishihiro asked, pointing subtly at a shortish figure with dark hair standing in line for one of the most dangerous-looking roller-coasters Abe's ever seen.

"Yeah." Izumi replied nonchalantly, continuing walking along their way. With a squint, Abe could pick out Mihashi's form next to Tajima's, his blonde puffy hair a dead-giveaway.

"What the hell are they doing in that-!" Abe started to ask indignantly, before Izumi flicked his forehead, shutting him up more efficiently than he thought possible.

"Do you want them to hear you or not?" Izumi asked.

"No, but-"

"Okay, then, let's go."

"Abe, c'mon, Mihashi will be fine. These rides are perfectly safe, and he's with Tajima and Oki, what could go wrong?" Nishihiro asked rhetorically, even though Abe could think of many things that could possibly go wrong the very instance they were strapped in that metal deathtrap. Nevertheless, he let himself be ushered away by his teammates, forcing himself to think of something different other than Mihashi or death or danger.

The next time he actually remembered blinking, Izumi, Nishihiro and Sakaeguchi were a ways ahead of them, joining Hanai, Mizutani and Suyama under an awning. He huffed, a little irritated with himself for spacing but for so long, but he pushed it all aside as he joined the majority of his teammates.

"-many tickets did you guys get?" Suyama asked, looking at them a little excitedly. The four of them shared a look, slightly nervous looks on their faces as they reached into their pockets and pulled out their handfuls of tickets.

"Whoa! So many!" Mizutani half-yelled, accidentally making a couple people that we passing by look at them suspiciously. He smacked his hand to his mouth, and smiled a little sheepishly. "Sorry…" He muttered.

"It's not the end of the world." Izumi said, rolling his eyes at him quickly.

"We haven't counted them yet." Abe said, matter-of-factly. "Once we know how much we have, we can see what we can get Mihashi." They all nodded.

They counted the tickets by tens, separating them into little piles as they went. The amount they had surprised Abe a little bit, because he never expected them to have so… much. But something bubbled in his gut and rose up to tug at the corners of his lips. At first he thought it was nervousness, but after a second, he realized it was excitement. (Well, of course, the nervousness was still there, because he was the one that instigated this whole thing, and he planned it out so that he WOULD be telling Mihashi that he maybe-sorta-really liked him, and he didn't know if he was still going to do it or not, but…) He couldn't fight the smile that was spreading across his face if he tried.

"Alright!" Hanai exclaimed, after counting the remainder of the tickets and putting them aside. "We've got 1,056 tickets. We should probably go to the stand and see how much everything is…"

"Abe, you look… creepy…" Sakaeguchi said, tilting his head and looking nervously at the broad smile that was on Abe's face. Abe blinked, the grin ebbing away a bit, but it was still there, and he wished it would go away.

"I do?" He asked, trying to sound serious, and at least he thought it worked.

"What's got you so happy?" Suyama asked, folding his arms across his chest and giving him an expectant look. Actually, everyone looked a little expectant, as if they were waiting for his answer with baited breath, but Suyama looked so smug that Abe had to give Izumi an accusatory glare.

"Hey, I didn't do anything." Izumi said, raising his hands up almost like he was showing that he was innocent.

"You didn't answer the question, you know." Nishihiro pointed out.

"Ah, whatever. I'm just glad this whole thing's going well, that's all." Abe had to bullshit, shrugging for emphasis. It seemed to appease everyone for now, except Izumi chuckled a little bit under his breath.

"Let's just… go see what we can get him. Okay?" Sakaeguchi said, looking at all of them in turn, and they all agreed.

From then, it was a battle with the crowd. People were everywhere, and it was hard to stay together, and they all ended up slipping and sliding and making their own paths through the people while still keeping tabs of each other. They finally caught up to Suyama, who was leading this whole thing, because somehow he managed to walk through the throng of people as if it was absolutely nothing. The prize stand was in sight, and literally all they had to do was walk in and pick out a prize they could afford when-

"Abe-kun!" Someone yelled, causing all of them to stop in their tracks. Abe cringed slightly. _We were so close…_ They all whipped around, and Abe was hoping, praying, that it was anyone other than Mihashi, because all they needed was a little bit more time, and everything would be perfect but…

No. Mihashi was darting his way through the people that separated him and the rest of the team. He stumbled once, and nearly bumped into several people, all the while Abe could faintly hear a stream of apologies coming from his mouth. Tajima and Oki were right behind him, their paths a lot smoother, but they didn't look happy at all (Abe guessed it was the fact that they couldn't distract Mihashi any longer, but it was only a guess after all).

"A-Abe-kun!" Mihashi said, finally skidding to a haphazard halt in front of him, breathing a bit heavily and smiling slightly.

"Hey Mihashi." Abe said, for a lack of anything better to say. He wasn't really paying attention to the blond, because he was looking at Tajima and Oki, who were frantically gesticulating behind Mihashi, mouthing words that looked like " _couldn't_ " and " _we tried_." Abe didn't blame them, of course, but…

"There you guys are!" Hanai said, swooping in just in time. "We thought we lost you."

"H-Huh?" Mihashi said, looking a little bit confused. Tajima and Oki blinked curiously at Hanai, having no idea what he was talking about, and it was only after Hanai made a desperate-looking facial expression that they caught on.

"YEAH! Thanks for ditching us, by the way!" Tajima said loudly, feigning annoyance and puffing out his cheeks in a stupid little pout.

"It's not like we meant to lose you guys-" Mizutani said airily, rubbing the back of his neck almost guiltily. Nishihiro and Izumi elbowed him, and basically glared at him. "I mean, we were looking for you all over, and-"

"It's fine! We found you guys now, right?" Oki said, waving it all off and smiling at us. Abe clicked his tongue slightly, and gave a little glare at Mizutani. _Shit left…_

"A-Abe-kun!" Mihashi chirped again, catching Abe's attention and making him blink in surprise. _He's… excited._ "There's… ah… T-There's… g-game… over…"

"OH, RIGHT!" Tajima said, smacking Mihashi's shoulder and nearly driving the smaller blond into Abe. Thankfully (on his part, probably not on Abe's, because he might have maybe just sort of wanted a reason to hold Mihashi like that for no reason), Mihashi caught himself before he could fall. "Mihashi found this really cool game, and he was wondering if you knew how to play." Tajima translated, and it was moments like this that made Abe inexplicably happy that at least _one_ person on the team knew how to speak Mihashi.

But the relief of having a translator did nothing to stop the train of thought that ran through Abe's mind; _he was thinking about me? Not about baseball, not about training, not about school. All apart from that! He was actually thinking about me when I wasn't even around! I'm taking this too far, he was probably just thinking about it because I was the one that planned this or something… but he was still thinking about me. Oh my god…_

Something smacked down on Abe's shoulder, hard enough to snap him out of his thoughts and enough to make him jump. "Just go with him and play the game. We'll take care of the present and you can do whatever the hell you wanted to do with him before we all tagged along." Someone hissed in his ear, and when he finally got a good look, he realized it was Izumi. (Which was, actually sort of dumb, because only Izumi knew that he sort of maybe really liked Mihashi.) Abe nodded slightly, and Izumi flashed a smile.

"Do you know where the game is?" Abe asked Mihashi carefully, hoping that his voice didn't shake or crack or anything, even though it had no reason to now, but that would have been embarrassing. Mihashi nodded energetically, a small smile on his face, his hands clenched into fists and held close to his chest. It was… almost endearing, how excited he was, but Abe couldn't think about that right now… right? "Alright. Let's go." He said, unable to stop the smallest smile blooming across his face.

"C-C'mon…" Mihashi said, turning around, but hesitated slightly before grabbing Abe's wrist and started walking. The movement would have looked smooth, like he planned on dragging Abe on in the first place, but Abe saw the tiny stutter (he spent practically every day studying the blond's movement and body language after all, of course he would pick up on this).

He was sure that was Izumi that was laughing behind him, but he didn't want to look back and check. Mihashi was carefully weaving between the bunches of people here and there, almost like he was floating. It was so unlike him, so unlike his rush to meet up with them in the first place, and for a second Abe considered that Mihashi was determined to make this work.

Why did he have to phrase it like that? ' _Make this work_.' Make _what_ work? He was only showing him a game, it wasn't like he was planning some grand surprise… because Abe did that in the first place, right? This was all for him, so there was no way that Mihashi could just turn it all around… right?

Abe realized that the place where Mihashi held his wrist was burning slightly, not the kind of burn that makes you want to flinch, but the kind that makes you aware of everything and anything all at once. Like how Mihashi's hand was slightly slipping away from his wrist and to his hand.

Abe pulled his hand away at once, and Mihashi stopped dead in his tracks and stared at him with wide eyes.

"It's okay. I'll follow you." Abe explained, trying hard not to rub at his wrist, which felt kind of cold now. (Abe regretted pulling his hand away, but he knew not to take advantage of the situation; Mihashi trusted him, and hopefully thought of him as a friend by now, he didn't want to ruin it by holding his hand on his birthday. In fact, should he really ruin everything they've built carefully over the past year or so just so he can tell him he maybe liked him?)

"Yeah." Mihashi said, nodding once, and started walking again. He walked a bit slower this time, and Abe easily matched his pace and walked by his side. (This is how the catcher is supposed to be anyways, right there when the pitcher needs him.)

It was a bit weird, because even when the both of them had nothing to say, and silence hung over them as they made their way through the festival, it wasn't awkward at all. It was… comfortable. Honestly, Abe was just glad Mihashi wasn't as scared of him as he used to be.

"H-Here!" Mihashi exclaimed, looking at something and then at Abe, a huge grin blooming across his face, and Abe had to physically keep himself from melting or potentially grabbing Mihashi and hugging him senseless. (His smile…) He wasn't able to do that, though, because as soon as Mihashi knew Abe was paying attention, he darted off towards a large yellow booth. Abe didn't hesitate to follow him.

"What is this?" Abe asked, looking bizarrely at the game. There were multiple lanes, each one with an inclined platform, and then holes in the shape of a target and then some other holes at the sides. The vendor in charge looked at the two of them, almost bored, before he recognized Mihashi.

"Ah, you're back to play more, huh?" He asked in a thick voice, turning around and grabbing a bucket of small blue balls. Mihashi nodded enthusiastically.

"A-Abe-kun… it's called skee-ball. Watch…" He said, handing some money to the vendor, and the man handed over a number of the balls. Mihashi walked over to one of the lanes, and put all the balls down except for one. He stared at the target for a second, before swinging his arm. To Abe, it looked like he was going to throw an underhand pitch. Then, Mihashi let go of the ball, and it rolled up the incline, popped up, and landed itself nicely in the center hole of the target.

"Whoa…" Abe heard come out of his mouth, and Mihashi bloomed with the offhanded praise.

"This guy's a natural." The rough voice said, and Abe turned and looked at the vendor as Mihashi snatched another ball. "I had to explain to him how to play at first, but he picked up on it immediately. I haven't seen this kind of talent in anyone before." The vendor said, almost sounding impressed, and Abe couldn't blame him. He looked back at Mihashi, who managed to flawlessly sink in one of the balls into a hole on the upper right that was worth 100 points.

Perfect… just like his pitches.

"I-It's not that hard." Mihashi said, overhearing what the vendor said and trying his best to take himself out of the spotlight. "A-Abe-kun… why don't you… have a turn?" He said, grabbing the front of his shirt nervously, but there was a wide smile across his face, not like the one that felt like directly looking at the sun, but it was enough to make him cave in.

"Sure." Abe said, stepping up in front of the inclined platform and the target and taking a ball. It didn't feel much heavier than a baseball, but it was might blue and it was kind of unnerving to feel a baseball but know it's not one. Abe brushed that thought aside, and took the stance Mihashi adopted while he was playing.

Aim… annnnd here's the windup….

The ball bounced clumsily up the incline, popping up at the last second (because of, what Abe saw now, a sharp upturn of the incline near the target), missing what he was aiming for, and falling lifelessly into a hole at the bottom of the target. Abe stared at it in shock, while the vendor laughed hysterically.

"Looks like you two aren't cut out from the same cloth!" He guffawed, slumping over his podium and laughing until he was crying. Abe glared at him.

"T-T-That was a nice try, Abe-kun…" Mihashi piped up, and Abe shifted his attention to him once more. "W-why… don't we play... a-against each other?" Mihashi suggested, pulling a bit more money out of his pocket and handing it to the vendor, who was still laughing, but managed to hand Abe the rest of the bucket of balls.

"But this isn't-" Abe started to protest, until the vendor waved him off.

"It's going to be worth it. I want to see how this goes." He said, something like amusement and expectance in his eyes. Abe huffed, and set the bucket between two lanes. The two of them both bent down and picked up a ball, and Abe should have been flustered to be that close to Mihashi for something as innocent as this, but it didn't occur to him then. All he could think was…

"You better go easy on me." He said, and Mihashi snickered under his breath. (He laughed… he actually laughed… god that was kind of cute, like if the sun had a noise… wait, what was that supposed to mean!)

* * *

Mihashi practically slayed him at skee-ball. Every other throw he would make it into the 100-point slot, and even then Abe was sure he was doing that on purpose to at least give Abe some sort of hope or ego boost. The vendor laughed here and there, especially when one of the balls Abe had thrown hit the edge of the incline and bounced back towards him. He swore he would have back that guy against the wall and punched him if it wasn't for Mihashi tugging on his sleeves every time, explaining another way to roll the ball or giving suggestion on how to stand (in his own kind of broken-Japanese, but Abe thought it was worth it).

Abe finally got a ball to sink perfectly into the 50-point hole as his phone started vibrating violently in his back pocket. Abe fumbled around and fished it out, and when he saw that Hanai was calling, he answered it immediately.

"Hey."

"Hey. You guys get over here. We need to get going or we'll miss the last train back."

"Back at the prizes, right?"

"Yeah. We're right outside."

"All of you?"

"Yeah."

"Did you guys manage to…?"

"Of course we did! What do you think we are? Idiots! ... He'll like it."

"Okay."

"And we've decided that we're saying that it's all from you. Okay, see you soon!"

"Wait-! Ugh!" Abe said, realizing that Hanai hung up. He stuffed his phone in his pocket and looked at an on-edge Mihashi. "Everything's fine." Abe reassured first, and he didn't know if that relieved any of his worries or not. "We need to go meet everyone else before the train leaves."

Mihashi immediately nodded, and said an almost-cheery goodbye to the vendor, who called out to them that they better come back next year. They rushed through the diminishing crowd (it was sunset now, people probably wanted to leave and go home, anyways, but this is better, because Mihashi won't have to bump into people like he did last time… he WAS moving pretty fast last time, now he's just… walking…)

"T-Thank you, Abe-kun." Mihashi said, his voice quiet compared to the general chatter around them, but Abe heard it as clear as day.

"For what? Playing that game with you?" Abe asked, slightly confused. He did agree to play, right? Mihashi had nothing to thank him for.

"N-No… I mean, yes, but… thank you for… this… party?" Mihashi said, sounding a bit confused at his own wording. Abe got what he meant. It didn't really feel like a party, because they weren't all together in the first place, but it WAS celebration for him, but… no more technicalities.

"Don't mention it." Abe said, smiling a little at him. It was only after the smile faded away that he prayed that it wasn't scary or condescending, because he's been told that his smiles look creepy before and oh god what if I just scared the hell out of Mihashi?

"A-Ah… there!" Mihashi said, tugging at Abe's sleeve to get his attention before pointing small-y towards Tajima, who was standing on a bench and waving his hands above his head.

"HEY!" He was yelling, and Abe could tell Hanai or someone was trying to get him to knock it off, but there was no way to deter him from what he wanted to do.

"C'mon." Abe said, hoping his voice sounded more stable than the rest of him, because he was so nervous, his stomach tying itself into knots and his hands never stilled, almost like he was signaling minutely for pitches that didn't exist. He prayed that Mihashi would like whatever they got him, he hoped that things didn't go wrong…

When they neared, Mihashi let out a surprised-sounding coo, and Abe could have sworn he could have lived every day of the rest of his life with that sound replaying over and over again in his head.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIHASHI!" They all screamed, and Abe didn't get a chance to say it, so he put his hand on Mihashi's shoulder to make up for it. Oki, Mizutani and Nishihiro were holding what Abe thought was initially a giant marshmallow, but on a second glance, it was a huge plush baseball with a generic smiley face on the front. Suyama held a hat, and Izumi had a lollipop at his side (though Abe wasn't sure if those were for Mihashi or not).

Tajima hopped down from the bench spontaneously, landing right next to Mihashi and nearly scaring him out of his wits. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" He cried, hugging him tightly.

"T-Thanks…" Mihashi said, a little out of breath but otherwise okay. "I-I-Is that f-for…?" He asked pointing at the plush baseball.

"Uh, yeah." Nishihiro said, and the rest of them nodded happily as Mihashi stepped closer and took the baseball into his arms.

"It was all Abe's idea." Izumi threw in casually, and Abe knew he was going to say that, but it still threw him for a loop. Mihashi brightened, looked up from the little smile the baseball had, and gave Abe the most wide-eyes look he'd ever seen on the blond's face.

"Y-You… Abe-kun, thank you so much!" He said, smiling, and Abe got the air knocked out of him in one go.

"Uh, guys? We should really get going now…" Suyama said, glancing at the glowing screen of his phone. Abe wished he didn't hear him because he just wanted to stare at Mihashi all night, but in the next moment, Mihashi's smile was gone and they were all rushing out of the festival and to the train station.

Apparently, all that running in practice paid off, because them somehow all ended up running in a straight line down the street (at first, they did it because of bumping into people, and then they just fell into it by habit). They practically flew down the stairs, and Tajima slid down the handrail for better time. They all got there just in time, and they all collapsed into their seats just as the doors closed and the train started up.

"Well, that was pretty fun!" Sakaeguchi said, a little winded and slouching in his seat, but a grin was on his face.

"I cant believe some of you haven't been to the festival before…" Hanai was mumbling.

"Hey! Sorry some of us don't have little siblings to cater to!" Tajima said, feigning defensiveness as he puffed out his cheeks at Hanai, who rolled his eyes. "Don't roll your eyes at me! See? This is why I hate tall people!"

"T-Tajima… not too loud…" Oki said weakly.

"Ah! Sorry!"

"This was pretty fun." Izumi said, sounding like he was actually considering what happened today. But Abe knew better, and seconds before Izumi threw him a mischievous glance and a smirk, he knew something was up. "Maybe this should be a tradition, huh?"

"That would be cool!" Nishihiro spoke up. "I don't know about you, but I haven't heard of a baseball club going to a festival as a tradition!"

"D-D-Don't surprise me, a-again!" Mihashi stuttered, and Abe was shocked that he barely realized that the blind was sitting next to him, clutching tightly onto the plush baseball caricature.

"Why not?" Mizutani asked, tilting his head to the side a bit. "You had fun today, right?"

"W-W-Well… y-ye… but…" Mihashi tried saying, shrinking in on himself with every syllable he uttered.

"You don't owe us anything, Mihashi." Tajima said, stopping his bickering with Hanai for a second and looking at Mihashi with his burning cinnamon eyes. "We did this for you because we're your teammates and your friends. You don't need to repay us or feel like you need to do anything more for us than you already do."

"Wow Tajima. That was beautiful." Suyama said sarcastically.

"And it's not like we did this just because, either." Izumi said. "We did it to show you how much we care for you. As a team." He added, but not before giving a knowing glance in Abe's direction, who flushed.

"T-Thanks…." Mihashi said quietly.

"No need to thank us." Abe muttered, looking anywhere then at the boy next to him, and crossing his arms over his chest.

The ten of them fell into silence, all too tired or worn out to make any worthwhile conversations. Abe took to replaying the events of the day through his mind; playing games, walking around, and just having… fun. And Izumi messing with him and Mihashi smiling brilliantly and finding out that Mihashi was really good at skee-ball… he was kind of glad the rest of the team came along. It probably wouldn't have turned out this way without them.

It was sudden, and it caused Abe to jump (though he would never admit to it), but Mihashi's head came to rest of his shoulder, his cheek smooshed and his fluffy hair tickling Abe's chin and neck. Abe blinked for a second, trying to debate if this whole thing was real or not, before he relaxed. There was no way he was waking up his pitcher now, nuh uh, no chance, and besides, he was cute like this. Abe shifted a bit in order to make Mihashi a bit more comfortable, before going still once more.

"So did you tell him?" Izumi asked after about a minute. Abe looked up from Mihashi's face (he didn't even know he was staring, honestly) and gave him a look.

"No." He said shortly, hoping that would be the end of it before the rest of the team caught on to what he was saying.

"Are you planning on telling him?" Izumi said.

Abe thought long and hard about that, even though it might have only taken about three seconds for him to actually answer. Risk everything and tell him, or keep everything the way it is? It was kind of complicated. Did he want to be with Mihashi every step of the way? Of course, definitely, on the field and off. But does that mean… that he wants to be with him as a couple? Thinking about couple things, kissing, cuddling, sex, kind of made him confused and worried. Sure, it was all new territory, but Abe wouldn't know where to start. He assumed it would come naturally, like a bright smile and a head resting on your shoulder, and the softest hair in the world slightly brushing up against your cheek and-

"I don't know." Abe replied.

Everything settled into silence once more, and Abe found himself resting his head on top of Mihashi's.

Either way, things were fine like this. Abe would settle for stammering speeches and blinding smiles and nervous tugs and nudges any day… or maybe it wasn't settling in the first place. Maybe it just _was_.

* * *

 **Okay, kind of rushed, i get that, and im sorry! But thank you for reading!**

 **Please Leave a Review!**

 **I love you! Please stay safe and make sure to smile at least once today, okay?**

 **-HB**


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